This week’s marketing winners, losers and newsmakers.
Marketing winners and losers of the week
Winners
Progresso
During a relentless flu and cold season, the soup brand’s new “Soup Drops” appear to be the winter balm no one knew they needed. After introducing the chicken soup-flavored suckable drops last week, Progresso released a second batch on Thursday. Both releases quickly sold out; Thursday’s release was so popular that it crashed Progresso’s website. Fortunately, the pun-loving brand will be ready with another drop of drops next week. “We’re SOUPer sorry, but don’t stew. Check back next Thursday at 9:00 a.m. ET,” Progresso wrote.
Parent company General Mills is making a habit of unlikely flavor and product combinations. The company is reportedly giving away a Totino’s Pizza Flavored Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal next week.
Netflix
The streamer saw its biggest quarterly subscriber gain ever in last year’s fourth quarter. A large part of the growth came from the return of the South Korean dystopian hit show “Squid Game,” which dropped Season 2 on Dec. 26. Netflix added 18.9 million customers in the quarter, according to a shareholder letter. The company’s fourth-quarter revenue rose 16% to $10.2 billion, its largest gain in three years.
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P&G
The consumer packaged goods giant reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings, attributing the success to consumers’ increased purchases of household essentials such as toilet paper and feminine care products. Net sales increased 2% from a year earlier, to $21.9 billion.
Losers
Hy-Vee
Grocery chain Hy-Vee said this week it was closing all 79 Wahlburgers outlets located at its stores, replacing the celebrity-backed burger concept with the Market Grille restaurant that proceeded it. Founded by brothers Mark, Donnie and Paul Wahlberg, Wahlburgers was supported by a reality TV show that ran from 2014 to 2019. The Hy-Vee closures will leave the chain with about 40 locations, Restaurant Business reported.
Stripe
The payments brand accidentally attached an image of a cartoon duck to emails notifying some staffers they had been laid off, according to Business Insider. Some 300 employees, in product, engineering and operations, were let go on Monday. In addition to the strange cartoon, which was labeled as a “US-Non-California Duck,” the emails included incorrect termination dates for some workers.
P&O Cruises Australia
The cruise line apologized for costumes worn by employees last month that resembled Ku Klux Klan hoods. During the Christmas holdiay event, the crew members said they were dressed as “snow cones” in white pointed hoods with eye holes and accompanying robes. “P&O Cruises Australia acknowledges an incident of inappropriate dress onboard Pacific Explorer has caused distress and wish to be clear this was not the intention of crew,” a spokesperson told USA Today.
Quote of the week
“Robux and all this money toward the platform—to us, it’s not real money but just because it’s virtual doesn’t make it less real for them. A lot of sales are happening through gaming—music discovery—all of these things that happen in that space that affect purchases and culture. Brands should be doubling down in the gaming space rather than pulling back.” —Cathy Hackl, CEO of Future Dynamics, a foresight and exploration lab, on how marketers can attract Gen Alpha consumers.
More: Marketing to Gen Beta, Gen Alpha, Gen Z, millennials, Gen X and boomers
Social post of the week
Number of the week
1,709
Number of social media mentions for Doritos from Jan. 1 through Jan. 21; with 28,189 engagements, the brand is the most talked about Super Bowl advertiser on social media thus far, according to Sprout Social.
Read more: Doritos ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ finalists revealed
On the move
The Orioles hired Mark Fine as chief marketing officer. He was CMO of Professional Bull Riders.
Ulta Beauty CMO Michelle Crossan-Matos said she is stepping down from her role after two years. Ulta is currently searching for her replacement, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Contributing: Jon Springer